


Imagine Me and You (I Do)

by Evening_Bat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Shippy Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 17:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2781155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evening_Bat/pseuds/Evening_Bat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Always better together than apart.</p>
<p>(Five ways that Naruto and Sasuke stayed together after Chapter 698.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imagine Me and You (I Do)

**Author's Note:**

> OMG, I can’t believe Naruto is actually _over_. Wow. Also, I can’t believe how _bad_ the ending was. 
> 
> ...Clearly, it is time to start writing out some of the umpteen alternate universes I have semi-plotted out for my favourite ninjas! Starting with a few (short) ways things might have gone. (Minus the arm thing. Look, if canon can ignore it, _so can I_.)

**ONE**

One of the first things Naruto did upon his inauguration was call the Konoha Council to his office. Though stung by the high-handed demand, Homura and Koharu obeyed his order. Naruto was young and famously hot-headed. Handling him would take all their patience, but they would do it for Konoha as they always had; some allowances could be made until Naruto came to understand the true workings of the village. 

That conviction wavered slightly as they walked into the Hokage’s office and found him waiting for them, an ANBU stationed silently at his shoulder. Instead of the boy playing dress-up that they’d half expected, they found themselves facing a young man who was every bit the confident, powerful leader his father had been, wearing the robes of his new office far more comfortably than they had predicted. That he would have a bodyguard went without saying, but they hadn’t expected _this_ one. There was no mistaking the Uchiha, though they were far from pleased to see him here. From the seething burn of his barely restrained hostility, the feeling was entirely mutual.

“Get ready for some big changes,” Naruto said before they could offer their greetings.

So. It was to be an open challenge, then.

“Changes? We’d be happy to advise you-”

“You’re not listening to me,” Naruto interrupted, the blue of his eyes cold as he stared at them. “I’m not asking for any advice. I’m _telling_ you that things are going to be changing.”

They exchanged a wordless glance. _Patience_ , they reminded each other.

“Please remember,” Homura began, only to be cut off by a sharp gesture from Naruto.

“No. _You_ remember that I grew up alone, with nothing, because of your policies. Remember that my best friend lost _everything_ because of your paranoia. The First founded this village so that children wouldn’t have to be weapons, and all you’ve done is profit from his legacy. Well, not anymore. It all changes _now_.”

“How _dare_ you?” Koharu shook her head, quickly regaining her composure. “No matter. The village needs stability after all that’s happened. The people won’t stand for your personal crusades.”

Uchiha chuckled behind his mask, and Naruto’s grin was decidedly unfriendly.

“You’d be surprised what people will stand for,” he said. “I’ve got the support of the ones that really matter. This conversation is just a courtesy. You can be part of this, or you can get the hell out of my way.”

“I believe you’ll find it more difficult than that,” said Homura.

“Difficult? It was _difficult_ convincing Sasuke not to kill you as soon as you walked in here. Compared to that, a few political reforms are going to be _easy_.” 

**TWO**

The daimyo’s envoy squinted dubiously at the pair of uniformed ninja that had just entered the office. 

“I thought I made it clear that we were asking for your best?” he complained to the Hokage.

“Hey! We _are_ the best!” The scruffy blond with the scarred cheeks scowled at him as he flung himself into a chair, while his dark-haired partner rolled his eyes and leaned a hip against the Hokage’s desk.

“You’re _children_.” Complete with adolescent attitude, it would seem.

“And they’re my best,” the Hokage said, with a careless wave at the two young men practically lounging in his office.

The envoy conceded with a grudging nod. He still couldn’t read Hatake worth a damn, but everyone said the man knew his business.

“Not if you’re looking to send us to court, we’re not.” For all his bored tone, the dark-haired boy’s eyes were sharp as they flickered over the envoy’s robes of office.

“Court?” The blond’s voice was full of dismay as he sat upright. “You’re not going to send us _there_ , are you?”

“Seeing as I’d like the place to stay standing, no, I’m not.” The Hokage was clearly smiling behind his mask at the blond’s gusty sigh of relief as he passed a handful of paper over to the boy perched on the side of his desk. 

“So what did you call us in for?” The blond nearly tipped himself out of his chair as he leaned forward to get a look at the papers his partner was scanning. “Come on, Sasuke! What is it?”

“Don’t worry - you’ll like this one. Do you remember that group down in Sand this spring?” he answered as he skimmed the reports.

“What, the mercenaries? Yeah, who could forget - wait, are they _here_ now? Oh, this is going to be _fun_.” He cracked his knuckles, grinning gleefully.

His partner lifted his head from the papers and caught the expression, lips curving into a small, vicious grin of his own.

“So you’ll stop them from causing any further trouble?” The envoy almost flinched when the pair looked over at him with eyes suddenly gone a bright, burning red. The Hokage’s best, indeed.

“Tell your boss not to worry.” This time the blond’s smile showed fangs. “We’ve got this.” 

**THREE**

Sakura found them the next morning, cold and pale and far beyond her help. By the time Kakashi reached them, the only thing he could do was hold his surviving student while she sobbed inconsolably into his chest. The only comfort to be had was in the still unbroken clasp of their bloodied hands, limply entangled on the rough stone. However painful their ending, they had at least reached it together.

**FOUR**

When Sasuke let himself into their apartment that evening, he found Naruto sitting at the table, staring at a familiar spill of red and white cloth and the Hokage’s hat. He hesitated in the doorway for a second, hand clenching hard on the frame. Kakashi had been dropping hints about stepping down for months now, but Sasuke hadn’t thought things were this far along.

“I take it congratulations are in order?” He kept his tone light and dry as he walked into the kitchen.

It was Naruto’s dream come true, Sasuke reminded himself sharply. If he couldn’t exactly be happy for him, he at least owed it to Naruto not to ruin it for him. And Naruto would do good things as Hokage, Sasuke was sure of it. It was more than enough to justify the loss of his favourite partner for field work; it would have to be.

Although Naruto was being surprisingly quiet for someone who’d just achieved his lifelong dream, Sasuke belatedly realized. “Naruto?”

“Yeah,” he eventually responded, finally looking up from the pile of regalia on the table. “I - yeah. I’m going to be _Hokage_ , Sasuke.”

“About time.” Sasuke softened the words with a quirk of his lips, then raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry. The promotion was good news - the best news of Naruto’s life, surely - so why was he having a breakdown in their kitchen?

Instead of answering, Naruto reached down to the chair beside him and flung a bundle of cloth at Sasuke. He caught it easily, turning it over until he was able to pull the folds back and open it. It was Sasuke’s turn to stare in shocked silence when he found himself holding a copy of the Hokage’s hat, wrapped in a robe identical to the one in front of Naruto.

“What is this?” he finally asked, looking between the hat he held in one hand, the robe dangling from the other. “Spares for laundry day?”

Naruto shook his head, a wide, luminous smile starting to spread across his face, and there was the disbelieving joy Sasuke had been expecting earlier. “Kakashi’s idea.”

“To give you spares for-?”

“Oh, just shut up about the laundry!” Naruto flung up his hands. “They’re not spares. They’re for you.”

Sasuke shook his head. Naruto’s thought process was difficult to follow on a good day, but he was making even less sense than usual. “What the hell are you talking about, they’re for me?”

“Just what I said. They’re yours.”

“They can’t be _mine, you’re_ the one who’s going to be Hokage…” Sasuke’s protest stumbled to a halt when Naruto laughed at him.

“No, _we’re_ going to be Hokage.” 

“We are not,” Sasuke denied automatically.

“We are. It was Kakashi’s idea, he’s already got it set up.” If the idiot’s grin got any broader, he was going to break something in his face. Or maybe Sasuke would break it for him.

“Are you _crazy_? You can’t have two Hokages! And even if you could, I’m the last person in the whole of the world that anyone wants in the office!” Sure, _Naruto_ thought it was a great idea, but what the hell had Kakashi been thinking?

“You’re the first person I want there.” It was said with Naruto’s simple, brutal honesty, and it made something clutch tight in Sasuke’s chest. “Besides, Kakashi’s right. We’re better together than apart. Always were, always will be.”

That much was true; they’d always made an amazing team, even when they’d hated each other. And there had been a time when Sasuke would have burned the village to the ground for a shot at the power Naruto was offering him on a platter. And to be Naruto’s equal, to stay at his side while they brought about the change Konoha so badly needed...it was an appealing dream, but it wasn’t meant for Sasuke.

“It’s _ridiculous_. You need a keeper, not a - a - a co-Hokage.”

“Pretty sure you could handle being both,” Naruto said, getting up out of his chair and crossed the kitchen to where Sasuke stood. He gently tugged the hat and robe out of Sasuke’s loose grasp, tossing them over his shoulder to land on the table. He stepped right into Sasuke’s personal space, close enough that Sasuke could feel the heat radiating off of him as blue eyes stared a challenge into his own. “Come on, bastard. You’re not going to back down on me now, are you?”

And there was only ever one answer to that question. “Never.”

**FIVE**

Sasuke had tried, he really had. His return had been all that Naruto wanted, and Sasuke had owed him too much to refuse. But ninja memories were long, and Konoha wasn’t home anymore, just another place full of ghosts and hostility. Sasuke had tolerated it as long as he could, but not even Naruto’s determination could make him love this place again.

“I can’t do this anymore.” The words had spilled out of him in an unplanned rush of breath that morning, and he’d fled before Naruto could draw a breath of his own to argue.

It took him the better part of a day to gather what he needed, ignoring the whispers that rustled along in the wake of his purchases. It gave him time to steel himself for the few goodbyes he needed to deliver in person. Kakashi wasn’t at all surprised by his halting admission, and did him the kindness of granting him the Hokage’s permission to depart before ruffling his hair and lightly ordering him to check in regularly. He made Sakura cry again, but this time she hugged him, and she let him go. Maybe she’d become enough of a healer to see how being here was killing him. Naruto was nowhere to be found when he got back to the apartment, but Sasuke wouldn’t - couldn’t - spend another night inside Konoha’s walls.

He’d come back tomorrow to talk to Naruto, he promised himself, as he hastily gathered his supplies and slipped out into the forest. He slept out under the stars that night, and it felt like the first full breath he’d drawn in months.

He woke near dawn at the approach of a familiar (unmistakable) chakra and was on his feet braced for a fight when Naruto walked into his campsite. The idiot had finally ditched the orange, Sasuke noticed, distracted from the nondescript brown of Naruto’s clothing by the shocking sight of Naruto’s bare forehead.

“So where are we going?” Naruto asked before Sasuke could say anything, dropping a full pack at his feet. “Geez, is _this_ all you brought? I hope you’re planning on stopping at the next town.”

“It’ll be enough,” Sasuke said, falling back into the patterns of their battered friendship so easily that it _ached_. “For me. What the hell are _you_ doing here?”

“Coming with you,” Naruto said, dropping to a cross-legged seat next to his pack. 

“No, you’re not.” The denial was hot and automatic.

“I go with you, or I follow you, your choice,” Naruto told him without looking up from the pouches he was rummaging through.

“You can’t leave Konoha!” Sasuke was abruptly furious, and wasn’t entirely sure why.

“But you can?” There was an answering gleam of anger in Naruto’s eyes when he glared up at him. “Screw that. If you go, we’re going together.”

“What about becoming Hokage? How are you going to do that if you’re busy chasing me all over the continent? Because I won’t go back, Naruto. I _can’t_.”

Naruto sighed, low and deep. “Becoming Hokage… I always wanted to make the village acknowledge me. And I did that. I wanted to make them respect me. And I did that too. And now I’d have a real chance at being Hokage. It’s what I wanted.”

Sasuke clenched his hands into fists as Naruto stood up and closed the distance between them. “So why the fuck are you talking about leaving?”

Naruto reached out - oh so carefully - and rested his hands on Sasuke’s shoulders. “Because I did everything I wanted to do except bring you home.” His hands tightened, fingers close to pressing bruises into Sasuke’s skin. “Turns out that I can’t do that. And I need you a hell of a lot more than I need a fancy hat and robe.”

“Don’t do this.” Sasuke was dimly aware that he was shaking in Naruto’s steady grip, caught once again between want and need. But he couldn’t let Naruto be as stupid as he’d been. “You don’t want to make a mistake like this.”

“The only mistake would be letting you walk away again.” Naruto laughed softly and leaned in to rest their foreheads together. “I’ve got the same permission to leave that you do, asshole. And we’ve got the whole world to explore while you look for whatever it is you need. So where are we going first?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I should apologize for the title or offer bonus points to anyone that recognizes it. :3


End file.
